The following discussion of the background of the invention is intended to facilitate an understanding of the invention. However, it should be appreciated that the discussion is not an acknowledgement or admission that any of the material referred to was published, known or part of the common general knowledge of the person skilled in the art in any jurisdiction as at the priority date of the application.
Retailing of any good or service often requires the input of multiple parties. This input can be difficult to co-ordinate, particularly in situations where the input of one party, or even the need to contact that party for their input, is dependent on the input of another party. In situations where the retailed service or good is distributed over an electronic network, this problem is further exacerbated by the common expectation that such services or goods can be provided immediately.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic transaction system that is customisable in a manner that simplifies the task of co-ordinating input from multiple parties over an electronic network.
A yet further problem with electronic transaction systems is the need for the electronic transaction system to integrate with the existing, pervasive Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale (“EFTPOS”) infrastructure. This poses problems as the EFTPOS infrastructure:                typically comprises transaction devices that include only an embedded payment applications because of their limited memory capacity; and        are highly regulated, such that any changes to an application that uses the EFTPOS infrastructure must be recertified—a considerably costly process for the application owner.        
One prior method of overcoming this problem has been to integrate the transaction system with the embedded payment application. However, this solution requires the transaction acquirer or processor to modify their main switch to accommodate transaction transactions as well as payment transactions. Such modifications are expensive and time-consuming.
It is therefore an optional, subsidiary, object of the present invention to provide an electronic transaction system that utilises the existing EFTPOS infrastructure while overcoming, or at least partially alleviating, one or more of the aforementioned problems associated with the existing EFTPOS infrastructure.